EFANET-Gambia holds bi-annual membership meeting

,Education
For All Campaign Network (EFANET)-The Gambia, a national education coalition
yesterday convened a two-day membership meeting and capacity building for
member organizations in the country at a ceremony held at the Regional
Education Directorate 1, in Kanifing.

The
forum was designed to avail members the opportunity to share information on
programme activities and advocacy strategies.

EFANET-Gambia
seeks to influence policies by mobilizing, building and strengthening
capacities of civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to help them effectively
advocate for the realization of quality education in The Gambia.

Board
chairperson Bakary Badjie stressed that capacity needs in the education sector
can be identified across all levels, such as creating a legal framework for
participatory policy planning for institutions and accountable monitoring for
organizations. “Education is both a goal in itself and a means for attaining
all other SDGs and the integrated and invisible nature of the SDGs is clearer
than ever,” he said.

Mr.
Badjie said education promotes empowerment and yields development benefits to
households, families, communities, state and the world by extension.

EFANET-The
Gambia, he said, will use the two-day forum to holistically discuss with the
participants on challenges affecting the general wellbeing of teaching and
learning as well finding ways of turning the identified challenges into
opportunities.

Speaking
on behalf of the member organizations, Omar J. Ndure said there are a lot of
questions to be asked and the platform will serve as an opportunity to answer
them. “As partner organizations, we have a responsibility to reflect on what we
have been doing in our own ways and together,” he said.

Ndure
maintained that EFANET is the fulcrum and pivot for all member organizations to
ensure that it succeeds and of the areas they should engage, saying to see it
succeed they must share best practices as organizations. “We are supposed to be
advocating meaningfully and lobbying particularly in the area of education and
a responsibility to influence policies especially on educational policies,” he
suggested.

He
noted that over the years, there have been an outcry in terms of providing
quality education in the country from parents, teachers and even the layman,
promising that as a network they have a responsibility at all times to ensure
that those children in the classroom benefit from quality and equal education
for all.

Ndure
commended EFANET for standing firm against the recent sit-down strike by the
“Teachers for Change” and urged member organizations to come out when such
crises arise.

“Our
childrens’ education is very important and we must all come together to make
sure that they get not only basic education but the best one.”